Please to present my best regards to Susy[1], & love to your little
children, & salutations to all enquiring Friends.
Mr. Nathaniel Cooper, of Dover,
New-Hampshire,
New-England.
[1] This was Susannah Hayes, whom he subsequently married.
Dr. Green continued in the Ranger until her return to Portsmouth in
October, 1778, when he left her, and returned to Dover.
When the Ranger was refitted in the following spring, under the command
of his friend, Capt. T. Simpson, he rejoined her as surgeon, and sailed
in her on a cruise in company with the Warren, 32 guns, Commodore J. B.
Hopkins, and Queen of France, 28, Capt. J. Olney; the latter a French
ship, which had been purchased at Nantes for the American government.
While on this cruise, in March, they captured a privateer schooner of
14 guns, and on the 6th of April the schooner Hibernia, of 8 guns and
45 men, and the next morning, off Cape Henry, six more of a fleet of
nine vessels, viz.: the ship Jason, Capt. Porterfield, 20 guns, 150
men; ship Maria, letter of marque, 16 guns, 80 men, cargo of flour,
&c.; and brigs Prince Frederick, Patriot, Bachelors John, and schooner
Chance, all laden with stores for the British army. Among the prisoners
taken was a Colonel Campbell, and twenty-three army officers of lesser
rank, on their way to join their regiments at the south.[2] All these
vessels were brought into Portsmouth, N.H., three weeks after the
squadron sailed from thence.
[2] Emmons's History U.S. Navy, 1776-1853.
On another cruise, the Ranger, still commanded by Simpson, in company
with the Providence, 28, Commodore A. Whipple, and Queen of France, 28,
Capt. J. P. Rathburn,[3] on the 17th of July, 1779, when on the Banks
of Newfoundland, fell in with the Jamaica fleet, homeward bound,
consisting of one hundred and fifty sail, convoyed by a ship-of-the-line,
and several cruisers, and succeeded in capturing eleven large ships, of
seven to eight hundred tons, three of which were re-taken; but seven of
them, whose cargoes were estimated to be worth $1,000,000, were brought
safely into Boston. All Boston was alarmed at the sight of the little
continental squadron and its prizes,--ten large ships standing directly
into the harbor,--believing them to be a British fleet. The buildings
were covered with spectators. The cargoes, consisting of rum, sugar,
logwood, pimento, &c, were delivered one half to the government and one
half to the captors.[4]
[3] The Queen of France, Providence and Ranger, all three under
the same commanders, were sunk at Charleston, S.C., May 12,
1780, by the British Squadron, after that city had surrendered to
the forces under Sir Henry Clinton.
[4] The Rev. Dr. Lothrop's Centennial Sermon in Dover, N.H., June
28, 1846 (Appendix).
On his return from this successful cruise, Dr. Green resigned his
position as surgeon of the Hanger in favor of Dr. Parker, of Exeter,
and returned to Dover.
In 1780 he sailed on another cruise in the Alexander, Captain Mitchell,
14 guns, but they accomplished nothing. In 1781, the vessel having been
fitted up as a letter of marque, under Captain Simpson, he went in her
to Fredericksburg, Virginia, and they took thence a load of tobacco to
l'Orient in France. He returned in the Alexander to the United States
in the autumn of that year, which concluded his revolutionary services.